By Shane McGlaun

A few weeks back I bought a new car. I figured my kids were old enough that they only need booster seats, so I would go ahead and get the convertible Mustang GT with a 5-speed. The problem is that you can’t drive the car and talk on the phone in traffic and most of the Bluetooth headsets I have tried don’t work with the top down at highway speeds.

Motorola has announced a new Bluetooth headset called the Endeavor HX1 that promises to allow the user to talk and be heard in even the most extreme environment. I think the top down at 70mph on the highway is pretty extreme as far as wind noise goes.

Motorola uses its CrystalTalk noise cancellation technology in the headset along with a stealth mode that activates bone conduction technology. The bone conduction tech picks up your voice by sensing the vibrations in your bones rather than using a mic. Sounds like just what I need for the convertible or any hurricane I may get caught in.

[ Motorola ]

By Shane McGlaun

I’m not a particularly heavy texter myself, but my wife is. I am here to tell you that when the wife or significant other likes to text, you will be answering lots of them and becoming much more of a texter than you might want. You may as well get a decent texting phone and make it easier on yourself.

Verizon Wireless has announced a new text optimized mobile phone from Motorola called the Rival. The device is a boxy slider design that has a full QWERTY keyboard. The handset comes in silver or purple colors and has a touch dial-pad (whatever that is). Messages are organized by contact and displayed in a chat format.

The QWERTY keyboard is backlit and the device can hold 500 texts in the inbox and outbox. Storage can be upped to 8GB via a microSDHC card. The Rival supports VZ Navigator, Visual voice mail, and V CAST music. The Rival is available now for $99.99 after $50 mail-in rebate. That’s as much as the iPhone 3G over at AT&T.

[ Verizon ]

This post is syndicated with permission from Gadgetoholic.com

Motorola has been unable to duplicate the success it had several years ago with its RAZR handset. Motorola is looking to regain some of its glory and its latest attempt to separate the mobile phone user from their cash is three new ROKR handsets.

The coolest one of the trio is the ROKR EM30. This phone uses Motorola’s ModeShift technology to illuminate the keyboard. When the phone is in music mode the keypad with controls for music are red. When the phone is in talk mode, the handset keys are blue. The EM30 also features a FM receiver built-in with RDS 4 technology for identifying the song and artists being played. The EM30 is also compatible with Windows Media Player 11 and has a 3.5mm headphone jack built-in.

The ROKR EM28 is a clamshell phone that has touch-sensitive music controls that appear only when in music mode. Artists and song title are displayed on the outer clamshell display so the track can be identified without opening the phone. Music can be transfer via USB with drag and drop simplicity. The EM28 also has 3D sound effect to give music surround-sound quality.

The third handset is the EM25 and it features a built-in FM tuner with RDS 4 technology. Dedicated music controls are available and the EM25 features FMShare that allows the texting of favorite radio stations to friends. SONGID technology is also featured to allow users to identify songs on the radio for purchase via download.

Via Gadgetoholic

Motorola announced yesterday that their new RAZR2 mobile phone is now available here in the United States. Motorola says the new RAZR2 is sleeker outside and more powerful inside. Three versions of the phone are available so users of all three major technologies will be able to use the RAZR2.

The MOTORAZR2 family will have a V9 version that runs on 3G HSDPA, a V9m version that runs on 3G EVDO CDMA, and a V8 running on plain vanilla GSM. Updates to the RAZR2 include a larger screen for full HTML web browsing and an external screen that allows viewing media, music and messaging without opening the phone.

Motorola also says that users will be able to get touch feedback on the external screen through a haptic key technology; and no I’m not sure what that means either. The phone will be equipped with up to 2GB of onboard memory and will support wireless music via headphones like Motorola’s ROKR S9.

VIA [ Motorola ]